I have. It will immediately take the shine away from polished aluminum, so its not going to make brushed aluminum look polished. It will help with oxidation though.

It won't take the shine away from polished Al if you use it like you do on a car. Whip it on, let if dry a little and buff it off with micro fiber. I use an auto detailer to help protect my bikes, just not on the brake discs or pads.

Got tired of my Leader frame having leader wrote on it in 9 different locations.
The powder coat was thick and hard to get off, if I was to do it again I'd take it to have it stripped somewhere. But good old regular aircraft stripper got the job done.

This is my six year old Kona. It too way too long to remove the paint. I used some Nitromors to get down to the primer, and then a mixture of coarse sandpaper, steel wool and wire brushes to remove the rest. While I was at it, I also replaced the stem and handlebars.

A couple of weeks ago, I converted it to a 1x9, put a new 36T chainring up front and added an N-Gear jump stop to the seat post as well.

Guys, I love the look and think I will do this to my 2010 Trek 4300, as I hate its current green color. One concern I have is oxidation and maintenance. How quickly does the raw aluminium start to look bad? When it does, I assume you just use a Scotchbrite pad on it? I guess I should think hard about adding any decals as that probably would make that more difficult. I will probably do it with a more brushed look instead of highly polished.

Sorry to be a thread hog guys, but I'm really interested in doing this. Anyway, where did you guys find decals/stickers? I did an Ebay search for Trek decals and found nothing. Although it probably is a bit of a pain to polish in the future with stickers, it does look nicer with something on the frame. I am also encouraged by the fact that many folks seem to being going for quite some time before the frame needs subsequent polishing because of oxidation.

Wow, that looks awesome for not polishing for a couple of years. Are the pictures recent or taken right after you did it?

judging by some of the parts that are still on the bike in those pics, id say that was within a couple weeks of polishing since i changed a few parts shortly after. i have better brakes and a lighter stem on it now.

Sorry, I think I meant powder coat. I can't remember if you can do clear powder coat, but i think you can. It cost more, but your frame would be bullet proof.

Your right though, It took me a couple of times to figure out clear coating with paint. You have to use good paint, be patient, and wet sand (I hate this step), and wet sand (I hate this step) and wet sand (I hate this step)the clear coat after its cured. I have had good results though. But it is a pain. I feel that on raw aluminum it wouldn't show the imperfections as much. Black is really a pain. Took me hours to get that right.

Sorry, I think I meant powder coat. I can't remember if you can do clear powder coat, but i think you can. It cost more, but your frame would be bullet proof.

Your right though, It took me a couple of times to figure out clear coating with paint. You have to use good paint, be patient, and wet sand (I hate this step), and wet sand (I hate this step) and wet sand (I hate this step)the clear coat after its cured. I have had good results though. But it is a pain. I feel that on raw aluminum it wouldn't show the imperfections as much. Black is really a pain. Took me hours to get that right.

I didnt want to deal with having to polish the thing all the time or have to clear coat it. I was able to save 87 grams off the frame weight in paint.

This looks perfect to me and is exactly what I want. I also prefer it to the highly polished look and you don't have as much "maintenance" hassle. Can you tell me exactly what your process was? What grades of steal wool did you use, etc.?

Use some type of paint stripper (read and follow the directions carefully) to remove the paint from the bike frame. "Aircraft Stripper" in a spray can seems to get the best results.

Sand and/or use steel wool in finer grades until you have a nice "brushed" look and all of the paint has been removed.

Buy a small jar of "Mother's Aluminum Polish" and scrap cotton cloths (old t-shirts) and polish the frame.

All done!

To get it polished, you won't be able to go from steel wool brushed straight to Mothers. You can rub till it catches on fire with mothers at that point before it polishes up. After going over with 0000 steel wool, you'll need to wet sand with paper. Soak the paper in water over night. Start at 500 grit and work your way up to 2000 grit. Wear gloves and don't get the Al on your skin. Then polish with Mothers. Then you'll have this:

Here is what I did.

Originally Posted by njdj

This looks perfect to me and is exactly what I want. I also prefer it to the highly polished look and you don't have as much "maintenance" hassle. Can you tell me exactly what your process was? What grades of steal wool did you use, etc.?

I started with a can of Klean gel stripper that I got at Home Depot. Brushed it on and let is sit until the paint started to peal up. Then I pressure washed it and recoated it with more stripper. It took several applications to get all the paint off. Some areas came right off, others required some elbow grease. I ended up using the entire can. I then used a wire wheel brush on my drill to get spots on the welds and cracks and crevices that the stripper wouldnt remove. I then buffed the whole thing with scotchbrite pads and finished it with fine steel wool.

Sorry to be a thread hog guys, but I'm really interested in doing this. Anyway, where did you guys find decals/stickers?

A while back when I used to race bmx my dad re-finished a set of forks and handlebars for me. I was a little upset that I lost the decals so I sent an email to the company that made the parts. They ended up sending me a bunch of new stickers for free.

A while back when I used to race bmx my dad re-finished a set of forks and handlebars for me. I was a little upset that I lost the decals so I sent an email to the company that made the parts. They ended up sending me a bunch of new stickers for free.

Trek says right on their website that they don't have decals avialible. I did find some on Ebay, but now I'm thinking about just keeping it bare. Stickers would probably look great if they are applied right. If you do a bad job applying them, it would mess up the whole look.

Trek says right on their website that they don't have decals avialible. I did find some on Ebay, but now I'm thinking about just keeping it bare. Stickers would probably look great if they are applied right. If you do a bad job applying them, it would mess up the whole look.

Go to your local sign shop. They will be able to make stickers for you. My guy makes stuff for me all the time and it's cheap.

To get it polished, you won't be able to go from steel wool brushed straight to Mothers. You can rub till it catches on fire with mothers at that point before it polishes up. After going over with 0000 steel wool, you'll need to wet sand with paper. Soak the paper in water over night. Start at 500 grit and work your way up to 2000 grit. Wear gloves and don't get the Al on your skin. Then polish with Mothers.